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Monday, December 31, 2012

After a wonderful Christmas and much needed rest from school work, I'm linking up with Oh' Boy 4th Grade for my second Currently. Here it goes.............

Listening-My dog is happy to get her water dish to herself after having to share with two other dogs that belonged to family from out of town here for Christmas. Loving-I treasure the time over the holidays spent with family.Thinking-I am working on my second young adult novel. My writing is at its best when I'm relaxed, so I am taking advantage of winter break to write.Wanting-I'm enjoying my new Kindle Fire I got from my hubby for Christmas. I want to read all the time now.Needing-Echoing the thoughts of Farley, I really need to get and stay organized. I am going to work hard on this.OLW-My one little word reflects the premise of my blog...Balance
This year I'm going to ....
-Balance my time between work and home.
-Balance my lessons to reach all learners.
-Balance things I like to do with things that I need to do.
I will keep an eye out to see if the scale is tipped too far in one direction causing undo stress.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

I'm enjoying my first couple days of break and am excited for Christmas now that I feel caught up with things at home......cookies baked, presents wrapped, house cleaned (well almost all cleaned :) I'm linking up with Teaching Maddeness for Flashback Friday.

I had a good day on Friday with my kiddos. I have the sweetest group of children this year. We wrapped up the last week before break with our Holiday Book Chats. The children brought in something that represented the story to show after they finished telling about their books. My favorite was the stuffed dog with the antler tied to its head to represent Max in The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. They all did an amazing job. I was so proud of them.

We also finished up ornaments for the parents. The children traced a cookie cutter on Christmas themed scrapbook paper and I hot glued the paper on the back of the cookie cutter. The children glued their pictures in the center and attached ribbon. They turned out so cute!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Friday, December 14, 2012

I don't know about you, but we have one full week left before Winter Break. We will spend the week making parent gifts, doing reader's theaters, reading Christmas poetry, etc. My favorite thing will be our Holiday Book Chats. The children share their holiday books and an artifact that represents the book. You may download my checklist and note cards for the chat by clicking the picture below. What will you be doing during the last week before break?

I want to say that my heart is breaking over what has happened to those precious children and the teachers in Newtown, Conn. My prayers are with the parents, families, teachers, and the community.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Oh the weather outside is dreary...it hardly
looks like Christmas here in Ohio.

It is has been hard for me to focus on planning my
lessons when so many thoughts of what needs done before the holiday dance
through my head.

I forced myself to regain my focus while
listening to Christmas music. It keeps the moodupbeat in this midst of this dark rainy day. It reminds me that the
children like to listen to it also while they're doing their work. So I will
make sure to put it on for them this week.

We will be reading Tops & Bottoms
in Reading Street this week...always a favorite fable of the children. I like
the partner text with it also, The Hare and the Tortoise.After reading, the children will compare the two fables using
an organizer from my Folktales, Fables, and Myth Unit. I would like to share the organizer with you this
week. It is common core aligned. Click below to download. Merry
Christmas!

Thursday, December 6, 2012

I am linking up with Farley @ Oh' Boy Fourth Grade for her December Currently Party. For the RAK( Random Act of Kindess), I'd like to give a shout out to a new blog. It's hard starting out and is nice when others help out. :)

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Embrace the teachable
moments. Part of having a balanced classroom is recognizing those opportunities
to reach beyond the planned lesson for the day. The moments when the students'
interest is peakedand minds are open.

One of those moments happened last week while I was teaching how to infer
setting. While listing possible time words to use on the anchor chart...past,
present, future, etc., the conversation turned to books set in the future. Some
of the boys that are better readers in
the class shared science fiction stories they like to read. The other boys
showed interest and we had a great discussion on that genre. Well worth the
extra time. The boys are motivated to look for those books when we go to
library and I am on the hunt some for my classroom library.

I learned to balance the well planned instruction needed in
the classroom, but also allow for those moments that can't be planned that are
so valuable. The teacher devotion site talks about teachers keeping their minds
open to learning also.

I finished my plans for
the week and needed an extra subtraction with regrouping practice sheet. I made
one with a cute reindeer available for free at my TPT store. Click the picture
to download if you would like to use it. Have a great week!

Friday, November 30, 2012

Tyler was walking to school and stopped
suddenly when he heard, "Hey kid, watch where you're going?". He
looked down and saw an angry ant shaking its fist at him.

This is how I introduce realism and fantasy.
I tell this story about one of my children and then tell a realistic version of
the same story. I list the elements of both genres on an anchor chart and we
practice identifying each genre during whole group reading using Reading Street.

After practice during guided reading, I will
put out books in a bag for reading workshop.I choose books of similar themes, one fantasy and one realistic fiction.
My freebie is a link to the printable the children fill out to compare the two
books. I have also used the books in a bag as a take home activity. Click on the picture below to download.

This is a fun time of the year to use this activity with holiday books. Enjoy!

Sunday, November 25, 2012

So
much of what we do each day is a balancing act. Balancing the needs of
students, all the demands of our job, our families, etc. Balancing time for ourselves can get lost in
it all.

For me personally, I feel out of balance if I don't take care of
myself mentally and spiritually. I need to take time to relax and read something inspirational. I found a website called The TeacherDevotion.A new weekly devotion from
The Polished Apple devotions is posted each week. This week's devotion talks
about the importance of our words as we strive to make a difference in each
student's lives.

It reminds me of the quote, "People will
forget what you said, people will forget what you did,but people will never forget how you made
them feel."-Maya Angelou

So when I hit the ground running tomorrow, I
will replay the words in my mind and keep my own words balanced with grace andencouragement for others.